In 1987, Michael H Hunt wrote and published his revolutionary book “Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy,” with an unprecedented approach to understand and explain the history of U.S. foreign policy in a different light. Before his book was published the U.S. foreign policies had mostly been described from the realist and economic centered perspectives narrated by critiques such as George Kennan and William Appleman Williams. In his book Hunt argues that historians should instead “attempt to understand ideology in relation to a cultural system.” (p. 12)
To support his argument Hunt utilizes the works of cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz and describes the importance of beliefs, symbols, and values in discussing ideology in foreign relations. This was definitely a very different approach than what had been practiced before. And even though Hunt’s work in this book may not be held as the sole instigator in the increasing appeal of the cultural approach – looking at the advances cultural historians have made since the publication of this book within the field of American foreign policy, specially by Paul T. McCartney, Amy Kaplan, and Donald E. Pease, clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of Hunt’s approach that upheld the adoption of cultural influence as a tool of analysis to analyze American foreign policy.
Hunt’s first chapter “Coming to Terms with Ideology,” opens up the discussion by analyzing works of Richard Barnet, Melvin Gurtov, Earl Ravenal, and Richard Feinberg, etc. Their works had been calling for greater restraint in foreign policy making. However, Hunt argues that without providing adequate attention to the role that ideology plays in foreign policy making this cannot be achieved. He also questions the approach of the father of the containment doctrine, George Kennan, as Hunt thinks “that might just be labeled as pejorative.” (p. 5)
Kennan talks about the role of legalism and moralism as a deep seated and pervasive outlook that “had repeatedly obstructed a clear definition and effective pursuit of the national interest.” (p. 6) Hunt argues that American foreign policies were not the result of moralistic and legalistic outlook rather the illusion of the U.S. that war is an “instrument of policy which could bring total victory or, alternatively, that peace could be had through world disarmament, arbitration treaties, and the outlawry of war, the action of international organization, and other means that sidestepped ‘the real substance of international affairs.’” (p. 6) Hunt establishes the central argument of his book that “the fundamental propositions of American foreign policy are rooted in the process of nation building, in domestic social arrangements broadly understood, and in ethnic and class divisions.” (p. 16)
In his second chapter, “Visions of National Greatness,” Hunt introduces his three central arguments. At the core of his central arguments is the simple question of where does this vision of American greatness come from? First, he opposes Jefferson’s ideas about liberty which enormously contributed to the belief of American exceptionalism within the American presidency and public rhetoric. Even though the book does not go into detailed historical analysis of how the United States was created – it does question the treatment of the natives by the British, French, and Spanish colonists. Particularly, for the British colonists who decided to make the land their own. The concept of greatness of the new country was somehow perversely related to the domination over the natives and the conquering of the new land. This chapter strongly demonstrates the huge impact that visions of national greatness had on policy makers in the days to come.
Chapter three, “The Hierarchy of Race,” sheds the light on how the concept of American exceptionalism was established in its early years. To give us a clear understanding Hunt takes us back to the old world order, where the belief in the hierarchy of race was predominant. Hunt reminds us that these colonists who came from different parts of the European world already had a pre-established concept of Europeans being the top race in the hierarchy. Particularly, the literature that has been circulated prior to the finding and colonizing of the new found lands, along with the centuries of racist history practiced by the European rulers in different parts of the world clearly indicates the mindset that these colonizers had towards the natives.
Towards the end of chapter three on page 90 Hunt writes, “Americans inherited a rich legacy of racial thought from their immediate European ancestors. Westerners coming into contact with peoples of the ‘Third World’ in the fifteenth century had already betrayed signs of racism. Well before Englishmen took that first step on the North American continent, they had absorbed Elizabethan myths about blacks and easily extrapolated them to other non-white people.” How this inheritance of racial superiority plays out in the field of foreign policy is experienced first by the “Manifest Destiny” doctrine. The concept and execution of “Manifest Destiny” ideology was simply a projection of this racist belief that the world belongs to the Anglo-Saxons. Along with the twisted mixture of Darwin’s evolution theory the Anglo-Saxons undoubtedly believed that they were the top race and had no hesitation in massacring the native Indian tribes for their acquisition of lands which they believed were gifts from the creator.
In chapter four, Hunt introduces the effects of revolutions happening around the world that also shaped American foreign policy. The French revolution was not admired by the leaders of the United because of its notorious history of bloodshed and the utter destruction of its royal families. Instead the Americans viewed the violent revolutions of the nineteenth century as an expression of the “unfortunate traits of foreign people, and the personal failings of foreign leaders.” (p. 116)
American leaders and its public maintained the same tone towards the Bolshevik revolution as well. Every step of the way, Hunt shows that the American ideology of superiority downplayed the world revolutions. Even in the case of the Cold War, in the concept of “containment” the U.S. obviously wanted to be the dominant superpower in the world – which Hunt claims was the continuation of the U.S. racial supremacy. In these few chapters Hunt pretty much consolidates his arguments as he draws the lines to connect each themes to the next. And in his final chapters, Hunt attempts to bring all the arguments together to discuss the continuation of these ideologies and how they affect today’s U.S. foreign policy.
It is quite difficult not to agree with Hunt’s perspectives as the book clearly demonstrates the residue of racial supremacy throughout the history of the U.S. and its European counterparts. To maintain its domination and hegemony the United States have involved themselves in all parts of the world. How they had handled the Latin Americans, the Asians, or the Middle East clearly indicates the aggressive tendency of the United States which roots from this very old racial supremacy point of view. What Hunt fails to address though is the rise of corporations and their lobbying in the governments, how the average American citizen is fooled by the treachery of these corporations and politicians – that also had a huge impact on the American foreign policy and trade. Because at the end of the day, they are all interconnected. By putting up the facade of superior race, the politicians continuously bluffed the Americans into believing that whatever the regime was doing was for the best interest of the U.S. population.
American foreign policy had been severely influenced by corporate greed and special interest groups. Just to mention a few, the wars in the Middle East had mostly been dictated by the need of oil and the interests of corporations, and the relationship with China and the destruction of American industrialism by moving all our industries to China and other 3rd world countries. At one point after WWII and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the “Uni-polar Moment” provided the U.S. to continue with their superior ideology, yet it chose to manipulate its own people by dragging the country into severe trade deficits and unwanted wars which yielded heartbreaking results every step of the way.
Hunt’s book has been an eye opening chapter for the history of U.S. foreign policy – but does it fully capture the grasp of the national exceptionalism, racial supremacy, and evolution had on the U.S. foreign policy. Albeit, there are other variables that had dictated the U.S. foreign policy, however, Hunt’s bold assertion on these three variables and how they have played a major role in shaping the U.S. foreign policy is admirable.